My Note Book.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4245, 9 August 1882, Page 2

My Note Book.

(By a Cbiticai Chabacter.) Certain rumoro are current of some little disagreement between the directors of. the Queen of Beauty mine and their engineer. It seldom happens that a clever man of any profession likes being interfered with by those having less knowledge; still, engineers must remember that the " purse power" likes fo have something to say in most matters where it has to loosen the strings. A lively shipping agent, well known on Shortland Wharf, contemplates a change. He has grown tired of his old haunts, and after all his efforts for the old place is about to remove his affections and try his experience upon fresh scenes. The uncertain value of property on a goldfield town was demonstrated last week at Mr Jas. Clarke's sale, where the ground alone a few years ago vras considered cheap at £80 per annum. For th» buildings and good-will not a single offer could be obtained. So much for leasehold property in Grahamstown. The ladies of the Thames are to hare on opportunity of ;playing high jinks. I would dearly like to see some of the committee go through their manoeuvres. The temporary want of logs at the Shortland mill, though of short duration, was a serious drawback to those using the prepared material. Several contractors have been delayed by the BcarcityroK_^ the proper sizes to carry on their works. This mill, though a private concern has become a sort of public necessity, and any interference with the outpuf of . timber for such a concern is more than a private loss, as there can hardly be less than one thousand pouuds per week put into circulation, and that in a small community becomes a matter of moment to „ all concerned. As usual in such cases the manager gets the blame, and is considered to exercise a too close economy in not having the different creeks or feeders so trimmed as to properly utilize the rainfali. A dependence on ProviI dence with a neglect of the ordinary : means of self-help is a lame excuse when screwjacks are so plentiful. Mr Vidal sets Critical Character right. Certainly Mr V. you have been trying to set many things right daring the last decade, including Moses, Sharebroker's charges, Judge Gillies, Theßß.Mr,. r, The Police, The Thames Clergy^' and The Town Clerk. Now try your hand on yourself, there's room there George. Of the formation of companies there is no end, from insurance to hardware shops and from tramways to candlemaking. The atmosphere of Auckland City smells of companies and the end is.not yet. ; The Thames Hospital must have been • a jolly place for somebody, orthe patients, '", a sorry lot of tipplers. But seriously has ■ it come '.o this that *. medical man by hia action admits the practice be has been following is not the best for bis cases, or is he by the fear of losing the position the Hospital gives, that at the mere suggestion of the House Committee he discontinues such stimulants. Either he must think his previous treatment of little consequence, or so fears the; opinion-'* of the House Committee that he abandons his method of treatment on a suggestion. Or is it that the doctor is now learning < a more excellent way. One would think that the adoption of the principle should '"■ have been tried on half the patients, and " results noted. It may be that John O'Brien has taught the doctor a lesson through insisting on a milk diet while a r patientin the institution.

■We have had a visit from the religious body known a« the Society of Friends (Quakers), in the person of two gentlemen who addressed an audience in the Academy of Music on Sunday evening, i hese Evangelists were the guests of Dr Payne, a fact which brought to my mind the absurdity of the aphorism that "a man is known by the company he keeps." *

Let the Senior Captain's pamphlet be what it may as a literary production, it gives him an opportunity of having his innings, and notwithstanding all its defects, it touches the citizen soldiers on their weak points, and hurts on accoant of its very truth. . ,